We endeavoured to shake off our week both literally and metaphorically. Those of us who could stand up did and shook all our limbs, as I said before people participated to the extent of their abilities. We then played the game
“Yes lets!” Everyone stands or sits in a big circle. One person is in. They offer an activity be saying “lets… for example…sing opera” Everyone in the group responds with a loud and enthusiastic “Yes lets” The came continues around the circle with everyone offering a different activity Some examples that we played with were: Lets do tai chi, lets be cats , lets catch butterflies, lets dance , lets jump up and down, lets chew like camels etc. It is a great game to warm up the whole body and focus the group into dram time.
After everyone was warmed up, or as some class members claimed exhausted we would focus on the main activities of the class that week. As most of the class were preparing to perform at the Shakespeare by Northcott performance, most weeks we focused some of our time on rehearsing their scenes and looking at the language of Shakespeare. Even those not preparing for the performance benefited from our exercises relating to Shakespeare. As a class we looked at the importance of voice projection and speaking clearly on stage. To warm up our organs of articulation we practised several tongue twisters and minimal pairs: Tongue Twisters: My mother makes me mash my M and M’s on a Monday morning oo ahh! Red leather, yellow leather Eleven benevolent elephants caught a taxi to Timbuktu We would play with these and others making them slow and fast, soft and loud singing, yelling, whispering. Minimal Pairs: Long/ wrong Shot /shout Pond/ pound Pot/ pout Breathe/ breeze Clothing /closing Rhythm/ risen Guess /gas Men/ man End/ and So as to include everyone, every week we also played a series of improvisational games and practised improvising scenes around a theme. One game the class enjoyed playing was, Magic box. This is a really easy game to set up; all that you need is a box or a simple object. This is placed in the performance area and becomes the magic box. The magic is that it can be endowed with any attributes, to become any thing in the world. However the rule is that it must stay being the object it has first been declared in the improvisation. For example if a performer comes on stage, jumps on the box shouting “Help! My boat is sinking” everyone else who enters the improvisation must honour that call and help the sinking boat.
Some additional games played included ·Zip Zap Boing ·Statues ·Tableaux ·Beginning and end ·What are you doing?
“Yes lets!”
Everyone stands or sits in a big circle.
One person is in. They offer an activity be saying “lets… for example…sing opera”
Everyone in the group responds with a loud and enthusiastic “Yes lets”
The came continues around the circle with everyone offering a different activity
Some examples that we played with were: Lets do tai chi, lets be cats , lets catch butterflies, lets dance , lets jump up and down, lets chew like camels etc.
It is a great game to warm up the whole body and focus the group into dram time.
After everyone was warmed up, or as some class members claimed exhausted we would focus on the main activities of the class that week. As most of the class were preparing to perform at the Shakespeare by Northcott performance, most weeks we focused some of our time on rehearsing their scenes and looking at the language of Shakespeare. Even those not preparing for the performance benefited from our exercises relating to Shakespeare. As a class we looked at the importance of voice projection and speaking clearly on stage. To warm up our organs of articulation we practised several tongue twisters and minimal pairs:
Tongue Twisters:
My mother makes me mash my M and M’s on a Monday morning oo ahh!
Red leather, yellow leather
Eleven benevolent elephants caught a taxi to Timbuktu
We would play with these and others making them slow and fast, soft and loud singing, yelling, whispering.
Minimal Pairs:
Long/ wrong
Shot /shout
Pond/ pound
Pot/ pout
Breathe/ breeze
Clothing /closing
Rhythm/ risen
Guess /gas
Men/ man
End/ and
So as to include everyone, every week we also played a series of improvisational games and practised improvising scenes around a theme. One game the class enjoyed playing was,
Magic box.
This is a really easy game to set up; all that you need is a box or a simple object. This is placed in the performance area and becomes the magic box. The magic is that it can be endowed with any attributes, to become any thing in the world. However the rule is that it must stay being the object it has first been declared in the improvisation. For example if a performer comes on stage, jumps on the box shouting “Help! My boat is sinking” everyone else who enters the improvisation must honour that call and help the sinking boat.
Some additional games played included
· Zip Zap Boing
· Statues
· Tableaux
· Beginning and end
· What are you doing?